This invention relates to a door or window screen, and more particularly to a horizontally moveable door or window screen or a vertical screen for a window. The screen is rolled up onto and unrolled from a vertically or horizontally oriented roller storage site adjacent to a framed door or window.
It has heretofore been proposed to roll upon and unroll door or window screens from a vertically disposed door mechanism or window frame. Typical of such prior art are U.S. Pat. No. 4,651,797 issued Mar. 24, 1987 to A. E. Lange for ROLL-UP SCREEN DOOR; U.S. Pat. No. 5,758,704, issued Jun. 2, 1998 to C. K. Elrod for ROLL-UP SCREEN DOOR APPARATUS; and U.S. Pat. No. 6,082,432, issued Jul. 4, 2000, to D. Kissinger for SCREEN DOOR ACCESSORY.
One significant deficiency of these screens is that the screen installation is dependent on the opening shape, which must be precisely square or provide a perfectly flush surface for mounting. Thus, for example, a door opening in a building that has settled xc2xc inch to one side of the opening would present significant difficulty in installing a properly operating screen inside the opening, and though an exterior flush mount system surmounts some of the difficulty with settled foundations or sills, it is still necessary to install the exterior flush mount absolutely square for proper operation. The same difficulties occur with window installations where the window opening has become out of plumb or not horizontal.
Additionally, friction in these systems precludes free operation in many cases.
There is no known satisfactory treatment in the prior art of accommodating opening variances in door and window screen assemblies.
Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide an improved, simplified low cost, easy to install, screen door or window closure system advantageous for use in single doors as well as with double pivoted or sliding doors and in openable windows of various construction.
A more specific objective of the invention is to employ a track and roller/low friction system that allows for extreme variances in opening dimensions while still permitting free operation of the system.
Another objective of this invention is to allow for these variances and still provide an effective insect barrier.
The screen closure of the present invention is essentially a fabric screen panel of any texture and stiffness that can be rolled up in response to a retraction spring onto a screen storage roller and unwound therefrom to extend as a planar sheet screen tautly disposed across a door or window opening. In the case of the door screen, the top and bottom screen edges to be horizontally extended across the door opening are typically carried by a drawbar with end caps to ride in top and bottom channel tracks secured to the door framework for retaining and guiding the respective top and bottom screen edges across the door opening between vertical doorpost frames upon which the screen door of this invention is mounted. In the case of the window screen rolled horizontally, the mechanism is the same. In the case of a window screen rolled vertically, the vertical side edges extend across the window opening framework for retaining and guiding the screen edges across the window opening between horizontal window frame members.
Accordingly, a horizontally movable vertically disposed drawbar having a grasping handle affixed thereto, or a finger pocket slot routed therein, is secured to the outer end of the rolled up screen panel, by suitable means such as an extruded spline. The drawbar has end caps on opposite ends for riding on top and bottom horizontally oriented tracks defined by generally U-shaped channel members. In these channels, an insect impeding member such as commercial weatherstripping is disposed inwardly on the channel side opposite the track.
A stabilizing mechanism provided by end caps at both ends of the drawbar is supplied with internally disposed spring loaded roller or low friction sleeves to ride upon the respective top and bottom surfaces of the tracks. The rollers or low friction sleeves and track are kept in contact by the roller housing/low friction sleeve surrounding a portion of the track and roller housing/low friction sleeve spring. Thus, the drawbar rides smoothly across the door opening in response to manual actuation in a vertical posture without binding, while accommodating wide variances in opening dimensions as the screen is opened and closed. A spring mechanism in the screen storage roller assembly serves to retract the screen so the drawbar may be manually or mechanically returned to the roller side in a housing. Either retraction method brings the drawbar into contact with the housing snubbers, cushioning the drawbar inpact with the housing, and reducing the noise and mechanical stress associated with mechanical closing.
The housing encloses biased screen storage roller mechanism for storing the rolled fabric screen panel and for releasing the panel to extend across an opening. The housing enclosure includes a novel convenient mounting structure for mounting the housing enclosure onto a framed opening.
Thus the screen door provided by this invention achieves the foregoing objectives of resolving deficiencies of the prior art to provide a different mode of operation, better installation and operation characteristics, and minimal complexity and construction cost.
Further objects and features will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art from the appended drawings and specification illustrating preferred embodiments of the invention wherein: